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Adam had always looked up to his older brother.
The five years between their ages seemed to feel like a lifetime, ensuring that whatever Adam was struggling with, Will had already been through and moved past. When Adam was learning to read, Will was already reading books on a High-School level despite only being ten. When Adam got nervous about meeting his first grade teacher, Will told him every single thing he remembered about her, and told him that if Adam mentioned that he was Will's little brother, she would like him right away. Will walked him to school and back, every day, even when Will started going to the Middle School a block away.
Some kids might have hated growing up with a brother like that. They might have been jealous that Will was so smart, or fought for more independence. But it was different, with Adam and Will.
It was Autumn, the first time he remembered it happening. It probably wasn't the first time, in hindsight. Will was too ready for it. But Adam can't ever seem to recall it happening before.
They were walking home from school. Will was kicking a pinecone down the cracked sidewalk. Adam was looking at the falling leaves. Adam was six, and Will was eleven.
Will stopped walking as they approached their tiny home, staring at the front door. Adam stared, too. There was a sheet of white paper stuck to the door. It hadn't been there that morning. Will's grip on Adam's hand wound tighter. Adam was small, even compared to other kids his age, and Will's hand seemed to swallow it up.
"Are you okay?" Adam asked. There was a strange look on his brother's face, like he was about to cry.
Slowly, the brothers approached the door. Adam peered up at Will, dragging his feet nervously as Will tugged him along. Will took the paper from the door, holding it tightly as he read the words. Adam lifted himself on his toes to get a closer look, but he could only read the four biggest words, right at the top.
WARNING: RENT PAST DUE.
Adam squeezed Will's hand. The paper in his brother's grip began to shake.
"Will?"
Will tightened his fist around the paper, crumpling it slightly as he turned to look at Adam. He looked very serious, suddenly. Old.
"Listen to me, Adam," he said. His voice was quiet but fast. Adam nodded up at him.
"When we go inside, I want you to go straight to my room, okay? Don't run, but don't stop, either. Just put your head down, and go right to my room. Can you do that for me?"
Another nod. He couldn't seem to make himself speak, but the instructions were easy.
"Good. I want you to close the door, but don't slam it. Then you're gonna crawl under my bed, and stay there until I come get you. Okay? Stay still, and don't make any noise."
Adam's heart started beating faster. He swallowed, his lower lip wobbling slightly.
"Okay?" Will prodded again.
"...Okay."
Will smiled, and it made Adam feel a little better. "Good. Everything is gonna be okay, Adam, don't be scared."
Adam was still scared, anyway, but he nodded again.
Will looked at the door, took a very deep breath, and then let go of Adam's hand as he reached for the knob. Adam immediately wanted to snatch it again, but he knew that he couldn't. He needed to go to Will's room, instead.
The door swung open, and Adam put his head down and started walking, just like Will told him to.
"We're home," Will said behind him, and the voice that replied was loud and slurring.
"They leave another one of those fucking things?"
"Yeah. It was on the front door."
Adam flinched when he heard the sound of breaking glass. A bottle, hitting the floor.
"Swear to God, if they don't— hey, where the hell do you think you're going?!"
Don't stop, Adam. Don't run, but don't stop, either.
"Leave him alone, Dad," Will said, and Adam bit his lip hard. Will wasn't supposed to talk back, he knew that.
Adam shut Will's bedroom door, quickly dropping to the ground and shimmying his way under the bed. He lied there, cheek pressed to the carpet and staring at his brother's messy floor, for what felt like hours. At one point, he started trying to count by odd numbers, practicing to fill the time while the voices outside kept speaking.
One. Three. Five.
Adam's chest hurt from lying on the ground. Their voices got louder and louder, and Adam shut his eyes and put his hands over his ears. Their dad was swearing, shouting. Will shouted back. Seven. Nine. Eleven. Thirteen.
The carpet was itchy and uncomfortable on his skin. Something in the kitchen made a loud banging sound. Something getting knocked to the ground, maybe. Or thrown at the wall. Even through his hands, he heard Will scream that he was sorry. Adam tried to settle his breathing, but he couldn't. Fifteen. Seventeen. Twenty— no, not twenty, not twenty, Adam, get it right.
He covered his mouth to keep from sobbing when the bedroom door swung open, and relief washed over him when he saw Will's beat-up sneakers and not his Father's work boots.
Will shut the door behind him, twisting the lock. For a few seconds, the room was oddly quiet. Beyond his own breathing, Adam could hear Will trying to even out his breaths. He heard Will sniff sharply, then let out a shaky exhale.
Then, his brother knelt. He looked at Adam under the bed, and smiled. If Adam didn't know better, he would think that nothing even happened.
"Hey," Will said quietly. "You can come out now, it's okay."
Adam broke, crawling quickly from beneath the bed and throwing his arms around Will's neck with a hopeless cry. Will just held him tight, shushing him gently and rocking him back and forth.
"It's okay," he cooed, cupping the back of Adam's head with a wide hand. "It's okay. You're alright."
Adam hid his face in his brother's shirt, burning up with fear and shame. Will just held on. "It's okay to cry, Adam. Let it all out, I've got you."
It took longer than it should have, maybe, for Adam to settle. Long enough that by the end he was exhausted, and hungry, and raw.
"Will," he whispered, blinking his heavy eyes. "Can you make me some mac 'n cheese?"
Will's mouth twisted, glancing between Adam and the door. "Do you think you could eat something else?" he offered. "Just for tonight?"
Adam sniffed, thinking it over. Sometimes it took him a long time to decide how he felt about things. He didn't feel like he had to rush to choose, though, like he did at school. Will would rather wait until Adam was sure.
"...I think so," he said at last. "Why, are we out of mac 'n cheese?"
Will just stared at the door again, fiddling with the cuffs of his sweatshirt. "I don't know," he confessed. "But I have snacks in my closet."
Adam wrinkled his nose. "Why do you have food in your closet?"
"Just in case," he said, moving to his closet and reaching for an old shoe box. It rattled when he moved it, filled with small goodies. Adam still didn't understand what 'just in case' meant, but when Will looked back, he gave Adam another funny smile. "Hey, I have an idea: let's have a sleepover."
"A sleepover?" Adam echoed. That sounded like fun. He'd never been to a sleepover before.
Will nodded. "We can build a Lego town, and play games, and eat snacks. You can sleep in my bed, too. It'll be fun."
Adam thought about it for another long moment, Will waiting patiently. "Well... I want to play, but I don't like sleeping anywhere but my bed," he said.
"But it's not a sleepover that way," Will argued. The smile was gone. Will was staring at him. He looked afraid. "Just stay in here tonight, Adam. Just give it a try, for me."
Will didn't usually make Adam do things that he didn't want to do, so he figured that this was important, somehow. Also, something about the look on his brother's face made Adam feel nervous to be alone. "...Okay," he whispered. "I'll stay."
That was the first time Adam slept in Will's bed. Will positioned Adam close to the wall, so that the older brother was between Adam and the bedroom door. Adam fell asleep first, and when he woke up the next morning, Will was already awake. He looked tired, and it made Adam wonder how much his brother had slept, or if he'd slept at all.
Adam never looked at Will the same way, after that.
Years passed. Will taught Adam how to play five-card poker, and whistle like a bluegrass singer, and do long division. Adam fell in love with the stars, and Will mowed lawns all summer long to buy Adam a proper telescope for his birthday. They made other friends, both of them, but no one knew Adam like Will did. Will knew how to make Adam's favorite foods, how to soothe him when he got overwhelmed, what candy to buy him at the gas station.
Their 'sleepovers' kept happening, as they got older. Some years, they would go months without it. Others, it felt like Adam was sleeping in Will's bed every week.
Adam had the steps down by heart. Will only needed to look at him, eyes wild and serious, and mouth the word Go. As soon as he did, Adam would head straight for Will's room, and hide until Will came to tell him that it was safe to come out.
He would list constellations to himself, shoved awkwardly under his brother's bed. Through the walls, Adam would hear yelling, banging, cursing. Sometimes it only lasted for a few minutes. Other times it would go on and on, until Adam ran out of stars to list and started listing Star Trek episodes, or David Bowie songs, or ways that he could disappear and never come back.
Eventually, Will always came back to him. He'd crouch by the bed, and tell Adam that everything was fine, now. It never really seemed like it was, in Adam's eyes. Will's face was always red and puffy, his voice always a little unsteady. But he put that smile on, anyway. A big fake smile, just for Adam. So Adam smiled back, and hugged him tight, and let Will hide him away.
One night, when Adam was eleven and Will was sixteen, Adam crawled from beneath the bed to find Will giving him that same funny smile. Will's face was different, though. Swollen, just near his right eye. There was a red patch forming beneath his eye socket. It looked painful.
Tears sprung to Adam's eyes. He hugged Will close, burying his face in his older brother's shirt.
"I'm sorry," Adam hiccupped, making fists around the fabric as he wept. "I'm sorry, Will, I'm—"
Will shushed him, petting his hair. It was thick, curly and dark. Just like Will's own, just a few inches shorter. He rubbed gentle circles into Adam's back, whispering to him.
"It's not your fault," he promised, but Adam still felt like it was. "You didn't do anything wrong, okay? Don't be sorry. It's not your fault."
That night, Adam watched his brother until he could barely keep his eyes open anymore. Will was still wide awake. They couldn't both fit in Will's bed, not anymore, but Will still didn't ever want Adam to leave his sight on nights like this. So Will sat on the carpet, letting Adam curl up in the bed. Maybe Adam was still supposed to think that Will slept during their 'sleepovers', even on the floor. Will never told him otherwise. Then again, Will never outright told Adam lots of things that Adam had now come to understand.
"Come on, Adam, you need to get some sleep," he urged softly. Will's eyes stayed fixed on the door, though. Like a guard. "You have a History test tomorrow, remember? I don't want you to fail just because you were up all night."
Adam tried to smile. It made him feel warm when Will remembered little things like that. Cared for. The bruise on Will's face was getting darker as time passed. It would be purple in the morning.
"...I don't know if I can," Adam whispered, burrowing deeper into his brother's blankets.
Will sighed, pushing back his shaggy hair. "Okay," he mumbled, looking around the room. "Do you want me to read something to you? I still have all those Agatha Christie books we got at that estate sale, maybe that'll help you—"
"Do you think that Dad wants to hurt me?"
Will froze in place. A few different feelings that Adam couldn't identify flitted over his face before he settled on a frown. "You don't need to worry about that kind of thing," he said sternly.
Adam didn't think that was a very good answer at all. "You do, don't you? That's why you always make me hide in here when he gets... angry. You think if I don't, he'll hurt me."
The older boy sighed through his nose. He tipped his head back, letting it hit the nightstand with a soft thunk. He didn't look at Adam when he spoke, his face was turned away.
"...I think it's more complicated than that," he said at last, and he sounded abnormally fragile.
Sometimes, Adam found himself forgetting Will's age. He's always seemed so much older, to Adam. More mature, more capable. Like he could do anything.
Lying there, though, Adam was suddenly confronted by the fact that Will was only sixteen. A child, just like him. An older child, practically an adult, but still a child.
"I don't think he wants to hurt you, no. I—" Will swallowed. Adam couldn't see his face, but his voice sounded thick with tears. "I don't think he wants to hurt me, either. Not really."
Adam's brows drew together, in hurt and confusion. "He hit your face, Will," he whispered. "Why would he do that if he didn't want to hurt you?"
A sharp sniff, and Will roughly dragged his arm along his face. "I don't know."
Will turned to look at him, then. His eyes were shining in the dark, wet and glistening. He moved closer to the bed, propping an elbow on the mattress as he came close to Adam.
"But you don't need to worry about it," Will said again, and flashed a teary smile. "It doesn't matter, because I'm not gonna let him touch you, okay? Never." He reached out, brushed Adam's bangs away from his face. "You trust me, don't you?"
That was a question that Adam didn't have to think about the answer to. He nodded. He could tell that it made Will happy.
"Then you don't need to be scared of him."
Will looked at Adam for another long moment, then moved to lean over the bed. Brushing back his curls again, Will pressed a soft kiss to Adam's temple.
Will hadn't ever done something like that before. They hugged often, and held hands sometimes when they were at a crowded store or crossing a parking lot, so that Will didn't have to worry about Adam getting lost. But Adam had never received a goodnight kiss before, from Will or anyone else. It was nice. Soothing. It made him want to believe his brother's words, that Will would protect him, no matter what.
"Go to sleep," Will said again, and Adam shut his eyes and tried to relax.
-
Adam was twelve when Will graduated from High School. Will stood on a stage in his cap and gown, visibly nervous even to Adam. He'd finished with the best grades in his class, which meant he had to give a speech in front of everyone. Adam had heard the speech at least two dozens times, now, Will begging him to listen to him deliver it 'one more time' again and again. It was a good speech, as far as Adam could tell. People clapped, which he supposed was the goal. Adam clapped until his palms stung. He was proud, and he wanted Will to know it.
People had been asking Will the same questions for his entire senior year. Friends, their Dad, even people at church who barely knew either of them. 'Where are you going to college, Willy? What are you going to study? What do you want to do after you graduate?' At first, Will just told everyone that he was still deciding. But Adam knew the truth.
Will wasn't applying to any colleges. He hadn't even gone to visit a single campus.
It made Adam worry. Will was so smart, he couldn't just let it go to waste! He was the smartest student in his graduating class, he could go to any college he wanted! Why, why wasn't he trying to go? To escape?
Will's eighteenth birthday came and went. The most important birthday of his life, the day that he was finally an adult in the eyes of the law. The day that Will had sworn, when the two of them were younger, that he would leave home and never look back. 'The second I turn eighteen,' he'd said, 'I'm getting out of this place.'
Adam spent the entire day waiting for it. For Will to start packing his bags, saying his goodbyes. For him to get out. He sat up in bed, all night long, just waiting to hear the door close behind him.
And then midnight came around, and Will was still in his room. And the next day came, and the next, and Will still wasn't leaving.
"You're being quiet."
Adam looked up from his cereal bowl. His breakfast had barely been touched. Will sat across from him, smothering his toast with butter and orange marmalade. Their dad was still asleep, for now.
"I'm sorry."
Will shook his head. "I don't want you to be sorry, Adam, I just want to know what's wrong."
He sighed, chewing the inside of his cheek. "Why don't you want to go to college?"
Will frowned. "Who said I don't want to go to college?"
"You didn't apply to any," Adam argued.
His older brother just took a large bite of his toast, shrugging his shoulders. "I do want to," he said after swallowing. "Just... not right now."
"Why not?"
Another shrug. "It's just not the right time. I'll go next year, maybe."
Adam felt an odd surge of anger, deep in his stomach. He couldn't really understand why, but Will's words made him mad. "Why not just go now?" he insisted. "What are you waiting for?"
"It's too late to go now, Adam. Even if I wanted to. I'd have to wait until after Christmas, even if I applied right now."
"Then go after Christmas!" Adam demanded.
Will took a long sip of coffee, watching Adam closely. "Why do you want me to go so badly?" he shot back. His head was tilted, just watching.
"Because!" Adam said.
"Because what?"
Adam huffed, and Will took another drink. "Because," he repeated softly. "You hate it here. And you don't have to stay here, anymore. So you should go, and live somewhere else, where it's better. It makes me... sad, that you're still here. You can leave." He glanced up from the table, forcing himself to look his brother in the eyes. "You should leave, Will."
Will opened his mouth a few times, then closed it again. Like he wanted to say lots of things, and couldn't pick just one.
Eventually, he settled on saying "I'll leave when I'm ready. Trust me."
And Adam did, so that was that.
-
It was nearly Autumn again, the last time it happened. Adam got off the school bus outside his house, and approached the front door.
As he did, though, Adam froze. He could hear shouting inside. Again. He shifted from foot to foot anxiously on the sidewalk leading up to the door. He didn't want to go inside.
A minute or so into his deliberation, though, the front door came slamming open. Will stomped out, a determined look on his face as his eyes landed on Adam.
He took Adam by the wrist, firm but not painful, and began leading him to the driveway. "Get in my car," he said, low and hard.
"What happened?"
"I said get in the fucking car, Adam!"
Adam flinched at the anger in his brother's voice, stumbling over his feet as he raced to hop into the passenger's seat and fasten his seat belt. Will sunk into the driver's seat a moment later, shutting the door so hard that it made Adam wince.
They peeled out of the driveway, speeding through their neighborhood. They were definitely traveling over the speed limit, but Adam felt nervous to say so.
As the distance between them and the house grew, Will seemed to calm down. He blew out a long breath, hands flexing and releasesing around the steering wheel.
"I'm sorry," Will said as they rolled up to a stop sign. Will was following traffic laws again, which was a relief. "I— I shouldn't have cursed at you like that, I'm sorry."
"You scared me," Adam whispered, hands folded in his lap.
Will nodded, tightening his grip on the wheel again. "I'm sorry. You know I don't ever want you to be afraid, not with me."
"I know. It's okay."
"No, it's not," Will insisted, refusing to move past the stop sign. "I fucked up, and I hurt your feelings, and I need to apologize. Don't just say it's okay if somebody hurts you, okay?"
"Okay," Adam said. "Then, I forgive you."
That made Will smile approvingly, and he turned his attention back on the road. "That's very gracious of you, Adam, thank you."
Adam just hummed, watching the trees roll by out the window. "Will?"
"Yeah?"
"Where are we going?"
Another sigh. Will started tapping an odd rhythm on the wheel. "I don't really know," he confessed. "Far away, I think."
Adam felt a stab of anxiety shoot up his spine. "How far?" he asked. "Because I don't have my toothbrush, or any pajamas, or my multivitamins."
"Don't worry about any of that," Will soothed, flicking his unruly curls out of his face as he drove. "I'll take care of everything, I promise."
The words didn't help with Adam's mounting fear. He watched Will drive, rubbing the pads of his fingers with his thumbs.
"Hey," Will said after another silent minute. "You, uh— you like Hannibal, don't you?"
Adam blinked. Hannibal was Will's friend. Adam had only met him a few times, and never for very long, but he and Will were apparently very close. Sometimes, Adam would catch Will sneaking in or out of the house at odd hours, and Will would tell him that he'd been having a 'sleepover' at Hannibal's house. Adam may have only been thirteen years old, but he got the sense that Will's sleepovers with Hannibal were very, very different from the ones he had with Adam.
It made Adam happy, to know that Will had a special friend like that. Someone his own age, someone he could talk to. Adam tried to be there for his brother, to support him how Will supported Adam, but there was only so much he could do. Will didn't want Adam to know about all of the things he was going through, Adam knew that much. Maybe he told Hannibal about those things, and Hannibal made him feel better about them. He hoped so, anyway.
"I do," Adam said. "He always asks me if I've learned anything interesting that I want to share with him, and he smells like peppermints."
Will's mouth curled into a grin as he turned onto a side street, seemingly with a destination in mind. "Yeah, I like him, too. Let's stop by his house, pay Hannibal a visit."
"Okay."
-
Will seemed nervous as he knocked on the door, looking around at the surrounding houses like he expected something to jump out at him. It made Adam feel nervous, too, and he wrung his hands as he waited.
Hannibal smiled wide when he opened the door. He was amazingly tall— taller than Will, even— with sandy blonde hair and eyes that crinkled when he grinned. Adam would never say it in front of him, but he understood why Will seemed to like Hannibal so much. He wasn't really one for crushes, but Hannibal was awfully handsome.
"Will, what a surprise," he said, sounding completely delighted. "Hello, Adam, how are you?"
Adam tried not to fidget. "Nervous," he confessed.
Hannibal tipped his head to the side, the way a scientist would. The way Will had started doing, not long ago. "Why are you nervous?"
Adam opened his mouth to speak, but his brother cut him off. "Han, we need to talk."
Immediately, Hannibal's body turned stiff. "Well, come in, then," he said, his eyes flicking all over both brothers curiously. It felt like he was searching their bodies for clues, looking for evidence. Adam didn't like it.
Will led Adam to sit on the couch in Hannibal's living room, handing him a TV remote with a fresh smile. "Me and Hannibal are gonna go talk for a minute," he said, and the words came out awkward. "Just hang out while we're gone, okay? Watch some TV, get comfortable."
Adam just nodded, but Will didn't walk away. Instead, he leaned close. He pushed Adam's hair out of the way with a sweep of his thumb and kissed his forehead.
Will still did that, from time to time. It still made Adam feel the way it did the first time, warm and safe and loved. He'd realized, though, that his brother only kissed him like that when Will was afraid.
"Relax," Will whispered to him before pulling away, even though Adam wasn't the one trembling. "Everything's gonna be okay, now."
Adam glanced over Will's shoulder. Hannibal was watching them, with a strange expression on his face. It was sad, somehow. Sad and soft.
And then Will was following Hannibal into a room down the hall, shutting the door behind them.
For a minute or two, Adam stayed put. He sat on the couch, he looked around the clean living room, he named a handful of comets.
He wasn't used to this. At home, under Will's bed, he heard everything. Even the things he really didn't want to hear. But now he couldn't hear what was being said, even if he concentrated as hard as he could. It only made his anxiety worse, with every passing second.
So he crept down Hannibal's hall, stopping by the door they'd gone through and pressing his ear to the wall.
"...I don't know!" Will's voice, his words leaving in a panicked rush. Adam could hear footsteps. Back and forth, back and forth. "I-I don't know what I'm doing, Han, I just couldn't—" Silence. The pacing stops. "I couldn't spend another minute in that house. I would've lost it."
"I understand that." Hannibal, his voice unfailingly calm as Will's only seemed to spiral further. "But, darling, you need to think about what you're doing."
Will laughed, but it sounded wrong. Mean. "I think that ship has fucking sailed already."
"Not necessarily."
A beat of silence. "...What are you suggesting?"
Hannibal sighed heavily. "Will, you know that I love you."
"I love you, too."
"But you are an unemployed runaway with, by your own words, 'no money, no possessions, and no plan'."
Will scoffed. "You want me to go back."
Hannibal's voiced softened even more, which Adam wouldn't have guessed was possible. "You took your brother from his legal guardian, love, your father could have you arrested for child abduction."
Adam gasped to himself. That couldn't be right. Will was his big brother, he wasn't a kidnapper! They couldn't do that!
Will just laughed again. "Fucking let him!" he said. "I hope he does send the cops after me, I'll tell them everything. Adam will back me up, too, he knows what happened in that house!"
"That isn't how it will play out, and you know that." More footsteps, as Hannibal kept speaking. More pacing. "If you get caught, you will be arrested for a crime that you, beyond doubt, did commit. You will go to prison, and Adam will be returned to your Father. If— and I cannot stress enough how conditional that if truly is— If any law officers believe your claims about your Father, they might launch an investigation, which will yield no evidence beyond testimonials from Adam and yourself. The odds that the courts rule in Adam's favor are shockingly low, but even if they do, you will be incarcerated, and your brother will become a ward of the state. Is that what you want?"
Adam clamped a hand over his mouth, trying frantically to hold back the cry rising in his throat. No. No, no, no.
"It's not fair!" Will half-shouted. He was crying, too. Adam could hear him sob through the wall. "It's not fucking, fair, I can't—" his voice broke, then, lapsing into a raw cry that quickly became muffled. Hannibal, Adam guessed, holding Will tight. Just like Will always did for Adam.
"I can't stay in that house," he cried again. "I can't just sit there until Adam turns eighteen, Han, I can't."
"I know."
"But I can't just— just leave him there, either!" Box springs groaning, the sound of Hannibal guiding Will to take a seat on the bed.
When Will spoke again, the fragility in his voice sent a sharp ache through Adam's chest. "I spent my entire life trying to protect Adam from that shit," he said quietly, his words wavering awkwardly through his tears. "I know I wasn't perfect, but I did everything I could for him. I can't just leave him behind. Adam, all alone, with no one looking out for him? Dealing with all the things I went through? He's not like me, he won't—" Another shuddering sob. Adam had never, in all his life, heard Will cry like this before.
"He won't make it, Han," he said, so strained and soft that Adam almost didn't hear him. "Even if he survives, he won't be the same anymore. He'll kill my Adam."
Adam was overcome, then, with an unbearable urge to wrench the door open and run into Will's arms. He vowed, then and there, that he would never give Will a reason to be this scared again.
"Breathe, darling. It's alright."
"I raised that boy, Hannibal," he insisted. "I did more for him than that son of a bitch ever did. He's not just my brother, you know? Not to me. He's— I know that I'm not his dad, or anything. But I-I look at him, and I feel like he's mine. And if I leave him there, and that fucker hurts him..."
Adam held his breath.
"I'll kill him. I really will."
Tears rolled hot and and blinding down Adam's face. Hannibal sighed. "Well, it sounds to me like you already know what you have to do, then."
A beat. "What do you mean?"
"I already told you what would happen to you and Adam, if you get caught."
"...So?"
Adam could almost picture Hannibal smiling.
"So don't get caught."
His pulse quickened, hit with a sudden rush of excitement.
"You're serious?"
"Go, Will. Take Adam and run. Your Father might think that you're only taking Adam out for the evening, blowing off steam. Put as many miles between yourself and him as you can, before he thinks to call the police. I'll give you whatever cash I have on hand, you can use it to buy yourself some time, if nothing else."
The mattress groaned again, another shifting of weight. "But what about you?" Will asked. "I might never see you again."
"Flee to Maryland," he offered. "When I start at Johns Hopkins, I'll seek you out."
"Yes," Will said, mesmerized. "Yes, I will. Look for me, I'll be there."
"Until then, my love."
Adam heard further movement on the other side of the door, then, and scurried back to Hannibal's couch, trying to make himself appear unaffected by the emotions roaring through him.
-
Adam cracked one eye open, peering at Will when a rush of cold night air entered the car. They were parked at a truck stop, Adam realized, and the tiny clock on the dashboard informed him that he'd been asleep for nearly three hours. Will had a cup of gas station coffee clutched in one hand, a plastic bag of snacks and drinks in the other.
"Will?" he murmured, and Will smiled at him.
"Hey. Go back to sleep, Adam, everything's okay."
He shifted in the seat, disrupting a piece of cloth that had been draped over his chest. Adam picked it up, frowning at it for a moment before placing its origins. Will's flannel, placed over Adam like a blanket and leaving Will himself in only a thin T-Shirt.
"...We're never going back, are we?" Adam asked, and Will sighed.
"No," he said. "Never."
Adam nodded, trying hard to absorb the change. Change was always difficult for him. Even changes that he thought would be good.
"You're gonna be okay, now, you know that?" Will said when Adam didn't speak. "I'm not gonna let anybody hurt you. You'll be okay."
And Adam wholeheartedly believed it. Will had been right, before. He'd done more to care for Adam in his life than their Father ever had.
Will leaned across the car, once again pushing Adam's hair back and kissing his forehead. Adam sighed happily.
"I'm gonna keep you safe, Adam. Just like I always have."
A tiny smile formed on Adam's face. "I love you, Will."
"I love you too, Adam," Will whispered, then pressed another gentle kiss to his cheek. "Now go back to sleep, okay? It's been a really hard day, but it's all over now. You can rest."
Rest. He could finally, finally rest. Adam tried to make himself comfortable in the seat, dragging Will's flannel up to his chin and watching headlights pass by as he drifted off into a long, deep sleep.